BECTU NEC Report to 2002 Conference appendix A: Annual Conference propositions 2001

Branch Circular 608 contained, in Appendix B, the list of propositions that were carried or remitted by the union's 2001 annual conference. The purpose of this report is to set out the progress that has been made on implementing those propositions.

Propositions carried

1/01 Election of President

This proposition has been incorporated into rule and will have been put into effect by the end of the union's 2002 annual conference.

3/01 Subscriptions

This proposition has now been incorporated into rule. In November 2001 head office wrote to over 8,000 members informing them of the impending increase to their subscriptions. A small number of members appealed against the increase to their subscriptions. Most of these appeals were allowed as they were accompanied by relevant information, and the change was put into effect on the 1 January 2002.

4/01 BECTU competitiveness

The main points of this proposition were dealt with at the 2001 annual conference. The cap on subscriptions was introduced in January 2002 and no further action is planned on this proposition.

6/01 Data Protection Act 1998

This proposition has been incorporated into rule. The appropriate regulating bodies have been informed of the reworded rule. New Codes of Practice were drawn up. Relevant information has been published in Stage Screen & Radio and all staff have been reminded of their responsibilities in respect of the Data Protection Act.

7/01 E-mail interception

The National Executive Committee has associated the union with any campaign that was consistent with the intention of this proposition. It has also been taken up as a collective bargaining issue in our dealings with many employers and our delegations to the TUC and Labour Party are mindful of the intentions of this proposition.

13/01 Increasing public awareness of trade unions

The National Executive Committee decided to use the main text of this resolution as the basis for one of our two resolutions to the 2001 Trades Union Congress. The following resolution was submitted to the TUC:

Congress notes there is an urgent need to increase the positive public profile of trade unions in Britain.

Congress calls upon the General Council to embark upon a memorable national TV advertising campaign similar to that recently organised by UNISON.

As part of the campaign the General Council should highlight the many successes and achievements of the TUC and affiliated unions, including the victory to secure holiday rights for all workers from day one of their employment, the introduction of a national minimum wage, the campaign on paternity and maternity leave and pay.

Congress agrees there will be a significant cost to this campaign and agrees that affiliates should be asked to contribute proportionately.

It was debated by the Congress prior to Congress being adjourned and was remitted to the General Council for further action.

14/01 Graduate membership

The report of the Audio Visual Industry Training Group was published on the 10 September 2001 and its recommendations are currently being considered by Government. It is expected that the recommendations will have a profound effect on the way media courses are offered in different universities in the United Kingdom. Providing the recommendations are accepted and implemented by Government and the educational establishments, it will become much easier to identify the media courses that are vocational courses and therefore to target those courses. Acting AGS Martin Spence, together with NO Tom Bell, has set up a programme of activity in this area.

15/01 Commissioning editors

The General Secretary has been in dialogue with the Post-Production & Facilities branch and is gathering further and better information about the background to this proposition, and when sufficient information has been gathered will be having a meeting with Channel 4 on this matter. The Commissioning Editor of Channel 5 attended the AGM of the Producers/Directors branch in 2001, which was a helpful contribution in respect of this proposition.

16/01 Production standards

This proposition was referred by the National Executive Committee to the London and Regional Production divisions. It was considered by the London Production division at its meeting on the 9 July 2001. The divisional committee agreed with the sentiments of the motion and noted that the problem of budgets did not just affect multi-media productions and digital channels. It was agreed that a mailing was to be sent to all London and Regional Production branches asking for concrete examples of the problems caused by low budgets and that the Producers/Directors branch would bring a paper to a further meeting of the London Production division. The Regional Production division considered this proposition at their meeting on the 8 September, endorsed the actions taken by the London Production division and agreed to work with that division to obtain further and better information.

17/01 Minimum wage

19/01 Anti trade union laws

The National Executive Committee has acted in accordance with the intention of both these propositions and in particular asked the delegations to the TUC and Labour Party to be mindful of the union's annual conference proposition in this area.

20/01 Rail safety

The National Executive Committee believes that it has a good record in this area and has supported all relevant campaigns. A petition was circulated to branches calling upon the Government to abandon its current plans for London Underground and we have at every opportunity offered our support to the rail unions in their efforts to improve safety.

22/01 Stakeholder pensions

The National Executive Committee decided that the second of its two TUC motions should be on this subject, and the following is the text of the motion submitted to Congress:

Congress agrees that the establishment of stakeholder pensions is a welcome development in the campaign to ensure proper pension rights for all workers.

Congress calls upon the General Council to launch a national campaign to persuade the Government to introduce legislation to oblige employers to make contributions to workers' pensions.

Congress was adjourned because of the events of September 11 before this proposition could be considered, and it has been remitted to the General Council of the TUC for further action.

23/01 Age discrimination

The National Executive Committee has encouraged divisions to include this as part of their collective bargaining brief. The National Executive Committee also decided at its meeting on the 3 June 2001 to affiliate to the Lobby to End Age Discrimination.

24/01 British Sign Language

The General Secretary, on behalf of the National Executive Committee, wrote to the Secretary of State, Tessa Jowell, on the 11 June 2001. That letter was passed to the Department for Work and Pensions who responded on the 20 June and the action being taken by Government was set out in their response. The correspondence was circulated to branches in Branch Circular 612.

RP10 Roving health and safety representatives

The National Executive Committee referred this proposition to the divisional committees of the union, and to the National Health and Safety Committee. The National Health and Safety Committee is continuing to put pressure on the Health and Safety Executive to accommodate the aims and objectives of this proposition.

RP11 Probationary period for new staff

This proposition was referred to the divisional committees of the union, and whilst the divisional committees supported the objectives of this proposition, some committees remained concerned about a few of the potentially unintended consequences. In particular, that if some of the employers we deal with were to agree to the shorter probationary period required by the proposition, that there would be an increased danger of more members' contracts being terminated before they had had a proper opportunity to prove themselves in a job.

RP13 Working Week

This proposition was referred to each of the divisional committees of the union, who were asked by the National Executive Committee to ensure that part of their negotiating strategy was to achieve a 35 hour working week. The proposition was supported by the Laboratories, Arts & Entertainment, Independent Broadcasting and BBC divisions. Both the London Production and Regional Production divisions supported the sentiments of the proposition but pointed out that it was irrelevant to most freelances given the pattern of freelance working. The National Executive Committee remained concerned that branches are bringing to the union's annual conference propositions that fail to recognise some of the fundamental differences between the way in which freelances earn their living and the way permanently employed members earn their living.

Emergency Proposition 1: Immigration policy

The General Secretary wrote to the Prime Minister following the General Election and received a reply from Jeff Rooker MP on the 9 August 2001. This exchange of correspondence was sent out to branches in Branch Circular 614.

Emergency Proposition 2: Chechnya

The General Secretary wrote to the Foreign Secretary and the Russian Ambassador on the 24 May 2001 in respect of this proposition. No response has been received to those letters.

Propositions remitted

8/01 BECTU website

Proposition 8 was considered by the National Executive Committee's Website Policy Group and the recommendations from that meeting were considered by the National Executive Committee at its meeting on the 15 July 2001. The National Executive Committee endorsed the following recommendation from the Website Policy Group:

1. The Group endorses the view that the union cannot afford to employ a dedicated webmaster.
2. The Group felt that the current website does operate at the relevant leading edge of technology with an emphasis on information provision, speed and accessibility.
3. Legislation: Other sources already exist on the web for this information, e.g. on the Thompsons website. The Group felt it would be more appropriate to highlight our links with other relevant sites than to re-invent the wheel.
4. On Line Membership Applications: Work is already underway to enable new recruits to join over the phone. The Group recommends that when this is in place and after it has bedded down, we should then move on to investigate joining and authorising payment on the website. This should include the ability to receive credit and debit card payments.

Further work has been undertaken to establish which employers would agree to the union putting up summaries of agreements or full agreements on the union's website. It needs to be borne in mind that BECTU does not have the sole copyright to these agreements. The Website Policy Group are continuing to work on the members' directory and I am hopeful that there will be a more detailed report to conference on this matter.

20/01 Pre-production rights

The National Executive Committee at its meeting on the 26 August 2001 endorsed the following policy:

Members' rights in respect of preproduction work need protecting on the same basis at this stage as at any other stage of the production, i.e. the right has to be well founded in the first place and suitably protected contractually (including any specific assignments). It is already standard practice to encourage members to work under proper contacts and the development of model clauses to suit specific preproduction situations (including 'pitching' for work) is best left to discussion with the branches most affected. If members fail to follow such advice they may jeopardise both their own rights and our ability to act effectively on their behalf.

For rights which are well founded and have not been assigned, a key issue is the need to track secondary uses which could trigger payments. A useful recent development has been the European Commission proposal for a European rightholders' database. Our submission to the Commission consultation on this is of course supportive. If - and there is no guarantee at this stage - the proposal is implemented, such a database could be of significant assistance in respect of preproduction rights (as well as all other rights).

On the separate issue of members working without pay and or without reimbursement for costs incurred at the preproduction stage, this is primarily an employment rather than a rights issue. Members are of course strongly encouraged to refuse unpaid work but this advice is not always followed in practice due to the pressure of the freelance labour market. BECTU has been and continues to be engaged in discussions on this and linked issues with the relevant employers associations (PACT and APA). This is therefore an item of ongoing industrial business.

RP12/01 Non-union contract staff

The National Executive Committee, having considered this proposition, has decided that it is not appropriate for there to be any further action on this, and that BECTU should be seeking to organise non-union staff regardless of their employer if they are situated in areas where BECTU members are working, subject, of course, to the provisions of the TUC rules on inter-union relationships.